Ferrera fields a curveball

America Ferrera got her break as a curvy teenager in “Real Women Have Curves” and broke into stardom as the not-so-ugly “Ugly Betty.”

Now, a few months before the hit ABC series gets to its finale, the 25-year-old actress says she found some of herself in the blond Viking bombshell she voices in “How to Train Your Dragon,” the new DreamWorks Animation film.

Based on Cressida Cowell’s children’s book, the 3-D movie follows the adventures of Hiccup (voiced by Jay Baruchel), the scrawny, misfit son of Viking chief and master dragon-slayer Stoick the Vast (Gerard Butler).

With no heart for killing these creatures, Hiccup discovers his skills as a dragon whisperer and becomes a local hero among the villagers and a rival for fierce classmate Astrid (Ferrera), also his love interest.

“They had created the character Astrid before they cast me so I was just glad that they were very open-minded to casting someone who didn’t look like the character,” Ferrera says.

“It was nice to play something that wasn’t really a version of me at all.”

As different as she might appear from her character, she sees some similarities.

“Definitely, in the way that Astrid wants to be the best of what she’s doing regardless of whether she’s a boy or not,” Ferrera says.

“You know, I was always the girl on the boys’ baseball team, one of the only two girls in the Little League playing baseball, so I think there is a little bit of Astrid in me.”

The birthday bunch

Comedian Eric Idle is 67. Actor Brendan Gleeson is 55. Singer Perry Farrell (Porno for Pyros, Jane’s Addiction) is 51. Comedian Amy Sedaris is 49. Model Elle Macpherson is 47. Singer-harmonica player John Popper (Blues Traveler) is 43. Actress Lucy Lawless is 42. Country singer Brady Seals is 41. Singer Kelly Sweet is 22.